Author Archive: Chris Stuart

Chris Stuart is a writer and songwriter living in San Diego. He was the 2008 recipient of the IBMA Print Media Person of the Year award, co-writer of the 2009 IBMA Song of the Year, and past winner of the Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting contest in bluegrass and gospel categories. You can follow him on Twitter @cvstuart, on Facebook, and at www.chrisstuart.com. On Tuesdays you can find him having fish tacos at Roberto’s in Del Mar.

Award shows usually disappoint. There’s so much that can go wrong, and even when things go right, the most that can often be said afterward is that awards were handed out and—in the case of the IBMA award show—music was played. You don’t expect a […]

Greetings Bluegrass Fans, Once again I am forced to remove the dust cover from my Underwood typewriter and report to you a plot so heinous that it caused me to look up the word heinous. First, let me say that I am enjoying my bluegrass […]

Dear friends upon the Internet, And Facebook pals I’ve never met, Let us pause in late December To gather ‘round and remember, The year that was two-thousand-twelve, (Old arguments for now let’s shelve). I’d have to say, if I were pressed, Twas not the worst, […]

Death has crept near and far this week in unspeakable horror, to those we know and to those we hear about. Words are usually my comfort, but this past week has reminded me of the inadequacy of words to express the deepest sadness—the loss of […]

Our guest smarty pants this week has been called the Father of Bluegrass History—okay, I just called him that, but it’s apt. Neil Rosenberg is Professor Emeritus of Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, a chair formerly held by Gandalf. Neil is also one of […]

This has been a week that I know a lot of you have faced already: having to put a loved one into hospice care and then watch as—in my case, my mother—slowly, quickly passed away from us. Alpha Mell Stanley Stuart was 98 years old […]

Today is Cyber Monday, the day that robots everywhere break Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and take over the world. But while that’s happening, let’s shop! You may have already done your shopping on Black Friday (which started this year on Thanksgiving Thursday) or […]

This is Blue Yodel #53, the same number of times that local bluegrass band The Remington Riders of Free Dirt, Texas, played their signature song, Remington Ride, at a wedding on November 19, 1995. It was band policy to play the tune whenever someone requested […]

This is Blue Yodel #52, the same as the world-record number of strings broken by the band High Wind Advisory the night of December 5, 1983 in Delphi Plains, Ohio, when they attempted a bluegrass version of the rock opera, Tommy. I bring up Ohio only […]

I spent yesterday with Josh Graves by reading Bluegrass Bluesman: Josh Graves A Memoir, a collection of transcribed interviews given in the ’90s by the resonator guitar master. Expertly edited by Fred Bartenstein with help from a lot of good folks, which I’ll come back […]

Last week we reran a column of mine about aggressive song-pitching, and I got this email: Hi Chris, I’m a songwriter who just moved to Nashville, and so far I can’t complain. I’ve gotten a song recorded by the bluegrass band Melon Rydge, and on […]

Driving home yesterday from the Bristol Bluegrass Spring Fest, I was struck by one overwhelming sentiment. What a joy it is to live in a world where Larry Sparks is a superstar. It may not be true everywhere, everytime – I’m sure Mr. Sparks can make it […]

No matter where you may live, it’s always good news when a new bluegrass event launches, just as it feels like the loss of a friend when one closes down. Here in Bristol, Virginia this weekend, we’re watching the first iteration of a new festival, the […]

How often do we discover bright young talent in family bands? The dynamic seems to entice and encourage the growth of budding pickers, who often develop rapidly in this supportive environment. It seems we never lack for examples, and here’s another. The Snyder Family has […]

Adkins & Loudermilk hit with a bang when they announced their partnership back in November of 2013, with reverberations sounding across bluegrass music. Edgar Loudermilk left his position on bass and harmony vocals with IIIrd Tyme Out, and Dave Adkins dissolved his own band to […]

On this day… On March 30, 1935, Paul Williams was born in Wytheville, Virginia. He was raised in eastern Tennessee. “Williams” was actually the stage name for Paul McCoy Humphrey. It was the name that he adopted when he joined the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in […]

Keith Little, much acclaimed singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer who has recorded and toured with the likes of Rose Maddox, California bluegrass pioneer Vern Williams, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The Chieftains, David Grisman and Peter Rowan, has graduated to leading his own […]

With this profile of Frank Solivan we welcome Brian Paul Swenk to our roster of writers here at Bluegrass Today. Brian is a banjo player and bluegrass nut in Richmond, VA who performs with Big Daddy Love, a multi-genre touring group based in Winston-Salem, NC. Bluegrass music, like […]

Tim O’Brien, apparently, never sits still. But Bluegrass Today was fortunate to catch up with him twice in recent days, once over the weekend before his solo set at the DC Bluegrass Union festival in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and on the phone a few […]

Being a bluegrass fan can be a curious thing. Some folks are born into it, listening to mom and dad play Flatt & Scruggs before they’re even out of the hospital. Others sort of just fall into it – perhaps they heard it on the radio, […]

It’s hard to keep a good man down in bluegrass music (although we all do like to be lonesome now and then), and radio broadcaster Larry Roberts is a prime example of that. Roberts has been a DJ for almost thirty years, and for the […]

Bluegrass is sometimes viewed as music for old fogies. The emphasis on tradition, the lack of electric instruments, the sheer lonesomeness of it all – it’s not Katy Perry or Justin Beiber, that’s for sure. In the past several years, however, it seems like more […]